A perfect post-gym dinner… super quick and full of flavour.
The only bit of planning here is with the steaks, which are marinated in soy sauce before they hit a super hot skillet for a couple of minutes on each side.
The king prawn stir fry is seasoned with a simple mix of garlic, fresh ginger and chilli… With a splash of rice vinegar and soy sauce… It’s then finished with edamame beans and pea shoots and a final splash of sesame oil. 
A simple mid-week supper with super tasty results.
Another Sunday… Another kitchen experiment.
Sticking with my recent theme, I opted to try and make my own fried chicken… with rather tasty results!
I also returned to my old nemesis… Bread making. A challenge which has previously resulted in mixed success.
This time round I tried a new recipe (from Paul Hollywood http://paulhollywood.com/), which included adding yeast to the flatbread (I’ve previously gone for the cheats method without yeast). The dough produced was surprisingly light and elastic. A sprinkling of black sesame seeds was all that was left to do before hitting the pan. At last… Success…
For the fried chicken I marinated the breasts in buttermilk, seasoned with mustard powder and paprika; before coating in their cornflake and panko crumb.
To serve, I opted for a garnish of crispy smoked bacon, rich tomato salsa and a generous helping of garlic mayo. A simple green salad on the side and it was time to dive in…Yum!
It was my birthday recently and my wife kindly treated me to a little day trip to London. Previous visits have indulged my quest to find the perfect burger joint and I hoped this one would too.
I’d heard good things about Patty&Bun, a small-chain with four sites across London.
The experience did not disappoint!
The restaurant opened at 12noon and we arrived eagerly at 12.05, only to be told that the restaurant was already full. We were invited to wait and made ourselves comfy on the bench outside (making the most of what was actually a really sunny day). The lunchtime crowds soon began to grow – a real testament to the quality of this place.
The wait was swift and before long we were welcomed in to the busy restaurant – filled with the sound of lively conversation and the intoxicating smell of the delicious food which awaited us.
The décor is spot on – casual, relaxed and just cool enough. The tables and chairs are laid out in a way that promotes a lovely feeling of informality and the whole place has that great, bustling atmosphere that you want from a Central London ‘grab-a-bite’ kind of place.
Service was attentive and friendly and the menu offered a great selection of treats to choose from.
I went for the ‘Ari Gold’ cheeseburger – a classic beef patty served with smoky mayo in a brioche bun. The burger was delicious and had that great quality of when you bite in to it, half the contents runs down to your elbows – perfect! The revelation here was the pickled onion – beautifully balanced and offering a fantastic dimension to this otherwise classic burger.
My wife went for the ‘Hot Chic’ chicken burger, consisting of buttermilk marinated fried chicken, with coleslaw and a delicious smoked garlic aioli. The crunch on the chicken was heavenly, and my wife (a chicken burger connoisseur) quickly deemed it to be the best chicken burger she has had!
The treats continued with our side orders, in particular the chips with roasted chicken mayo and chicken skin salt. A delicious concept that I loved so much, I have already attempted my own (see my Juicy Lucy Burger post).
Sunday is my creative time (when I say creative, read making a mess in the kitchen) and this weekend I decided to try my hand at the American diner classic… a Juicy Lucy.
The theme was ‘Build-Your-Own’ with a selection of sides and additions to choose from…
The burger itself was made from steak mince, seasoned generously and stuffed with a mature cheddar (tangy enough to cut through the richness of the burger but not so strong that it detracted from the meaty flavour). The burger was then housed in a buttered and grilled brioche bun – the perfect companion for that soft hint of sweetness. Additional burger building options included: pickled onions; gherkins; onion ring; crispy onions; lettuce and roast chicken mayonnaise (more on that later!)
Sides included: BBQ baked beans (always a classic) and smoky sweet potato fries.
Two sides that it’s worth mentioning in more detail are the pickled onions and the roast chicken mayonnaise.
When it comes to onions in a burger, I’ve generally been in the no camp; I find the strong raw flavour over powering for even the meatiest burger. However, a light pickling makes the world of difference – removing any offensive flavour and instead bringing a welcome pickled flavour which marries well with the other flavours. I would recommend using shallots and going for a light pickle with a little caster sugar to give a rounded flavour.
The roast chicken mayonnaise is truly a revelation! There are two approaches you can take here, depending on the time and effort that you want to put in. One is to use reduced roast chicken pan juices to season your mayonnaise, before adding crisped and dehydrated chicken skin for the ultimate in punchier chicken flavour. This is by far the best way to approach it, however if you’re not up for roasting a chicken, I have discovered a sneaky cheat which offers similar (and still very tasty results)… take a chicken stock cube (go for something like Knorr which has a decent mix of herbs etc to boot) and mash it up with a little salt – this will help to draw any moisture out of the cube and give you a powdery crumb. Mix this with your mayonnaise (preferably homemade) and you’re done. One thing to be careful of… avoid adding too much, as the salt content is pretty high. Instead add a little at a time until you get the flavour that you want.
Inspiration came from a recent visit to Patty&Bun (James St, London) – see my Patty&Bun review post.
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